Thursday, May 14, 2009

Heavy Machinery and Crops

AAARRGGGG I just typed out an entry and then lost it. Stupid computer!

Well Peter held his promise of teaching me how to drive the John Deer tractor. Wasn't on it more than 20 minutes and then decided to get off and try again later. It was a little intimidating I will admit. Tons of knobs and gears. I do know how to put the emergency brake on though, simple just put the scoop down.

I spent the last 3 days mowing part of the grounds. It was really easy to get the hang of. You just have to remember when to stop and start the blades rotating. Haven't figured out the patter to do it in though to get the most for your circuit. The John Deer mower is way easier to work than the Kubota one. The John Deer has a steering wheel while the Kubota has the levers on either side that you move. That takes a bit to get the hang of but is the more maneuverable one of the bunch. I was on that about 15 minutes and called it quits... way too confusing to work properly. I was doing a pretty good job mowing for my first time all things considered. And now I can put that on my resume. Not that it will help that much but at least I now know how to do it. The only thing with the John Deer is that the steering is really loose and easy to turn so when I got into my truck afterward the steering felt hard even though it is one of the easier vehicles to steer that I have driven before. I just have calluses now on my palms, but they will come off with Nivea or a least heal. They don't look like they are there but I know.

I also helped tickle the potato plants yesterday. Basically just moving the top soil around to find the potatoes that are growing on the top. It is really interesting and amazing the amount of potatoes just three rows will produce. It was a lot of fun to get out there and dirty up your hands just to see what your hard work of nurturing, weeding and watering can produce. Of course if the weather changed a bit we would be able to get some more but I don't think that that will happen anytime soon. Helen made the new potatoes with green beans and garlic and rosemary chicken for lunch.

I have some Cauliflower and Broccoli frozen in my fridge right now at home, waiting for me to make Baked Cauliflower and Ziti with. It is amazing how good fresh produce tastes. It almost makes me want to get a house right now just so I can have a garden. I know that when I do finally get a house I will have a vegetable garden and a lemon tree at least. I love fresh lemonade, nothing can beat it!

Also on the grounds we have 2 fig trees, 2 plum trees, and Helen's Herb garden. Any time you pass by you can just smell the herbs and they taste amazing. Helen used some in lunch today. There is also a patch of jasmine growing by the steamboat house and it smells amazing. It really helps make up for having to open the house 1.5 hours earlier than you are supposed to on a Saturday for a building rental.

Overall been a good week and not a whole lot more going on.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Folk Fest Summary

Well the Museum just got done with the General Sam Houston Folk Life Festival. It could have been a better success.

1. It rained Monday and Tuesday. By rained I mean poured so that meant there was hardly a chance it would clear up and be dry for the weekend, especially since it was fore casted with 30-50% chance precipitation all week. Yet I put my foot down and it said it wasn't going to rain and it didn't rain until Sunday morning.

2. Sunday morning it poured early in the morning. Nothing could be done about it. It just affected the museum grounds. Which had already been affected by the rain earlier in the week and the people walking on the grounds. (I'll talk more about the grounds in a minute.)

3. Because of the Swine Flu or H1N1 Flu as it is more professionally known, there were NO kids on Friday. Which is set aside as the educational day for the festival. Of 39 schools that scheduled to attend, 26 cancelled within the 2 days before. (We only found that out because I was tired of waiting in the Rotunda on Friday for kids to show up that never did.) The schools were required to cancel because from higher up the ISD's all school activities outside, field trips and extra curricular had been canceled. So of the 5,000 students expected to attend, maybe 500 showed up and this is being generous with the number.

4. Webb society decided to do a bake sale again this year which I get myself into heading again. Made enough cookies to sell some 200 bags turning a $1 profit for each bag after taking out the 46 that I spent on making the cookies and such. Well there are bags sitting on my dining room table right now. Since the kids didn't come we hardly sold any of the cookies. We even resorted to 2 bags for $1. I don't know how much we even made off those.

5. There were twice the number of food vendors this year as last because the person in charge of food vending didn't put a cap on the number of entries. So there was already going to be hostilities there. Well when the kids didn't show up, not only Webb, Folk Fest, and the Museum lost out of money but so did the food and craft/ product vendors.

6. Webb also spent money on binding cook books. I think that possibly 6 were sold, out of 50. Assuming they (the ones selling the goods and books) were able to keep up with the tally sheet I gave them. Also had left over coloring books from last year that we tried to sell, I'm not even sure we sold one.

7. The grounds looked amazing before; no I'm not sure that there is a correct way to describe them. They look awful because of the rain.

8. That reminds me, the Gulf Coast Boys were supposed to be here all weekend to pick up the trash around the grounds. Well after the lack of turn out on Friday they decided not to come the rest of the weekend. At least they told Folk Fest about it but that meant that the Volunteers had to pick up the slack.

9. There weren't as many volunteers as we would have liked there to be had we had the large group. But there wasn't so it really didn't hurt us this time.

10. Haven't seen the ducklings....

The bright things about this weekend:

1. There was no rain Friday or Saturday or Sunday afternoon. We are only open in the afternoon on Sunday. The sun was out. Heck it was hot and muggy but way better than it could have been.

2. Saturday wasn't as bad as it could have been with the Swine Flu. People still showed up and the weather was nice. There were things being sold and spirits were higher all around.

3. Sunday some of the food vendors didn't bother to come back. That meant that the ones that were there were able to scrap off a profit, if hardly.

4. I now have a new duty as assigned as a photographer. Last week I went around taking pictures of the grounds as before shots. I did some during on Saturday. (Side note: got an excellent one of port-a-potties underneath the Sam Houston Memorial Museum: A National Historic Landmark Sign.) Those were more of how the damage is caused. Trackers, vans, trucks from people driving in to set up. The high traffic areas, that sort of thing. Then there are the after shots... big divots in the ground, mud everywhere. It doesn't look good at all.

5. Friday turned out to be relaxing with out the school groups there. Saturday was as well for the most part. I heard the same about Sunday.

6. Thursday all of the tours for this week called to cancel because of the ISD's being grounded. That gives us more time to work on getting the grounds and our heads back in order for tours.

7. Some sodas were liberated for the Museum.

8. The dutch oven cooking was amazing. Amazing as always. We even started a Donation tub that I heard racked in some money.


This really isn't a plus or minus just more of a thing. Got the kitchen cleaned out. Then spent some time working on getting the kitchen cleaned and the stuff in the kitchen, like the crockery and the dutch ovens. We rinsed them off, scrubbed the dirt off and then ended up rubbing them down with shortening. My hands are fairly exfoliated now.

And Palmolive works wonders. Hands covered in grease, ashes, dirt, rust, etc. I turn on the hot water obviously to help get it all off and grab the dish soaps, it has to help cuts grease right. At least a little bit. Well let me tell you that stuff does work and it works wonders! One go with a glob of it hands were spot less. Helen and I even went into the office to show Mike and Rebecca the before and after to praise Palmolive.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Ducklings

Well now there are ducklings. I come into work last Thursday and am told I should be a proud mom. Turns out the nest that I couldn't get to had fertilized eggs in it and they hatched. There are now numerous ducks running around. Two almost adult ducks that I call teenage ducks. And 8 baby Mascovy ducklings. Used to be 11 but over the weekend nature got to them. IE nature being: the hawk, turtles, other ducks, car, cat, dog or the numerous brats running around the pond not being controlled by their parents.

That reminds me of the things that get on my nerves the most. People who can't be bothered to throw their trash away even though there is a trashcan less that 10 feet from them and instead are so inclined to throw it on the ground. People who throw trash out of their cars while they are driving. And people who let their children run around unsupervised with no regard for those around them, won't discipline their kids when they are doing something they shouldn't, get upset when someone tells their kids to stop doing something they shouldn't. URGGG I HATE STUPID PEOPLE!!!!

Back to the ducklings. Since the General Sam Houston Folk Life Festival is in 4 days, that means in 4 days there will 5,000+ students running, literally running around the grounds with their teachers/chaperons. So there basically is a small chance that the ducklings are going to make it through the weekend. Sad but true. Then today while picking up trash and cleaning around the grotto I found another nest, didn't know was there with 8 eggs. Had to pick them up because it would be better than her hatching them and having to watched them get picked off one by one. It hurts because the ducklings are so cute but you know what could and with a very significant chance hurt them.

Right now there are 9 geese eggs on the nest. Finally found a goose sitting on them. It was the one that the other geese wouldn't let hang out with them. So there is no telling if her eggs are fertile, if she is just laying them or if she was bullied into sitting on them. There really is no telling. But for right now the eggs are just going to stay where they are.

Back to the Folk Fest. Not sure how it will go this year since I will be working the other end of it. Basically all should be fine as long as I am just doing Museum stuff on the clock and as soon as I start to do Webb stuff I get off the clock. I don't mind working this weekend but some other social things have come up so I might not do it.

I received another duty as assigned last week officially. Wood to Kitchen hauler. LOL Its not that bad just got to take a bunch of trips cause I can only carry so much. But by the time you take into account picking up the wheelbarrow from the barn and taking to the Kitchen and back it is basically the same distance as just making the small trips.

I just did big trash in the creek and cleaning out the grotto instead of the big stuff. A. it was getting hot and humid outside. B. what is the point if in a few days it will be covered in trash. C. the Gulf Coast boys can do it during the weekend. D. I really didn't feel like picking up the little trash and glass today, even though it would have been a good day since the creek is low and the water isn't flowing.

Right now I am basically doing nothing. Can't really think of anything exciting that has happened. Oh wait I just remembered. But I'll save that for tomorrow.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Goings on of the past 2 weeks

Today, I saw another bride taking pictures at the Duck Pond. They were pulling up as I was walking over to unlock the building.

Duck Update: Daffy the black duck has two babies. At least she did Monday. Haven't gone to check on them. There are 4 geese eggs in the nest. Haven't seen any sitting on the nest but not too sure. Sandy said that we are just going to leave them for now unless they get to be too much. There are 6 geese total now, 3 weeks ago there were only 4. Duck eggs have slowed down quite a bit. That or they have found a new place. Just Monday I found that under a rotten tree where they were hiding them, there is a ledge in there and one duck sitting on something and she is not willing to move at all.

Monday, I finger painted with glue. LOL We are still working on making sure the new Margaret case is visually appealing and were re doing some fabric covered sticks. And we were spreading the glue with our fingers because there was nothing else. Mac then walks in to see what we are doing and Helen and I say we are finger painting with glue. It made me smile.

Since the Museum ran out of the general brochures, it is hard to direct people around the grounds without having a map to show them. So I scanned an old brochure took the map image, enlarged it and put in word document and now we have been using those. I feel accomplished because I was the one who did it.

The Tuesday we had a group of 7th graders that just didn't want to wake up. Well behaved but couldn't wake up. Wednesday we had the typical 4th graders but 150 of them. And the teachers need to realize that we can't accommodate that many students in the amount of time you want us to. They didn't get a chance to look around the grounds until about 10:30 for the tour and then weren't done until almost 12:45. 10 minutes isn't enough time to get the effective perspective of the grounds and houses.

The most annoying part is that the teachers get upset with us. Well maybe if you got here on time or earlier and already have your 8 classes split up into 6 groups instead of making us do it then it will run faster or maybe if you had even scheduled the tour to be 2 days instead of 1.

Another thing I noticed now, you have no idea how much money these kids are given by their parents that they are allowed to spend on field trips. TONS OF MONEY!!! I walked a thousand dollar deposit over to the Cashier's office. A thousand dollars spent on crap that kids will probably only use or play with for a little bit and then never see or use again. Granted I know I did that too but still. Little rocks, wooden pop gun, walking stick, stuff like that.

That reminds me... some people can be just plain rude. Tuesday night I worked late to cover for an rental. We need a staff member to be present to basically just make sure the place doesn't get burned down. It's easy and simple. Since I took the reservation and the student workers couldn't work it. I did it. While I was there a man came by and asked me if the Walker Education Center was the Museum. I said "No, this building is part of the Museum that has the gift shop and shows a 15 minute video about Sam Houston. The Main Museum is down the Wilderness Trail." "But the sign says Museum entrance." "This is one of the two but the place with Sam Houston's memorabilia is at the Main Museum." "Well then label this place right." And then storms off.

A. It was 6:30 at night. What museum do you know of in a small town is open at 6:30 at night? We have the hours posted on the Museum web page, Huntsville web page, on the multiple signs around the property. Take a chance to read those.
B. You came in through a back door. The sign that you had to obviously pass in the front to circle around the building to get to the back informed you that you were about to enter the Walker Education Center. Not the Sam Houston Memorial Museum
C. Be nice and don't walk away when someone is trying to help you buddy!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

2 weeks off really take it out of you

Last Friday was the first day in the kitchen for me doing the Standard Tour with the Hearth Cooking Demonstration. It could of gone worse. I basically remember all that I needed to say and got most of it said, not in the greatest order or flow but it was said. The only fall back was the fire was ridiculous. The wood wasn't burning right or making good coals. It was also the first time I made the fire myself so I wasn't to make sure the sucker would light. It did eventually. Probably would have helped if I brought out un moist newspaper that hadn't been sitting in the humidity like the ones I used that had been sitting in the closet.

Basically what ended up happening was I didn't have enough hot coals to pop the popcorn the first time. The steam of heat didn't rise out when I moved the lid the first time and the first batch didn't pop at all. Like I had to throw it all out. And to top it all off. I grabbed the lid without a hotpad. Luckily I didn't burn my hand but still was like seriously brain what are you thinking here! So between the first and second group I ran inside and popped another bag of popcorn and the second batch worked a bit better. Giving everyone a little bit of seconds. Come to find out today that the reason the wood didn't catch as well as it should have was most likely because it was recently split firewood and hadn't had a chance to breathe. Which looking back makes sense. Let that be a learning lesson for all of you.

After that was over I went on Duck duty. Not only did I find about 4 regular duck eggs and 4-5 muscovy duck eggs. I found the geese nest. 10 eggs in it. Not realizing that I probably shouldn't of picked them until after I started I went ahead and finished because I realized that I hadn't been given the policy on geese eggs. Found Peter who said that it would be nice to have little geese and asked what I was going to do. I said I was going to call Sandy. He also said he didn't know that they were laying, neither did I. Now back tracking geese eggs are larger than regular duck or chicken eggs. By about 2 times as big. I call Sandy and she says she is going to call her friend Ushi who has a farm and just had a gosling hatch the other day. (Side note: I found an old lunch bag that I now use to put the eggs in when I find them. That way people don't know what I am picking up and it keeps them safe while I am walking around looking for more.)

Sandy calls me back saying that Ushi would love to have them and her husband is going to pick them up. So I get them ready for her and drop them off upstairs and they are now going to be hatched and taken care of instead of having to worry about the college students and kids hurting the goslings or messing with the eggs. I called John for the other eggs but no luck.

Either way I felt so good about finding those eggs. Like I had made a discovery that no one else had done. It was amazing. Started my vacation off to being better than ever.

Yesterday was great just relaxed. Cleaning the creek and looked for more eggs, ran some brochures over to the Statue Visitor Center, went to Brookshire Brother's for museum groceries. And that was about it. I did get complimented by Peter about me being one of the greatest new hires in a while, and might even be passing up Mike. Jokingly of course. However, I think that the ducks/geese are now clicking on to what I do out there and I am pretty sure they are getting testy with me and were yelling at me all weekend for taking their babies.

Today during the tour I got SOOO tired and my feet are basically like rubber and hurt. And I was getting hungry and therefore got MAJORLY tongue tied. It is bad taking a 2 week break because you get out of the loop of things and get back in it.

So I was talking about the Woodland Home and describing the rooms. I move to Sam Houston and Margaret's bedroom saying " This was probably one of the busiest rooms in the house" Not realizing how it came out. You see I had done the kitchen tour on Friday and said that the Kitchen was the busiest place on the farm. And it truly was with cooking before dusk and after dawn, making candles, making soap, canning, jarring, preserving, cleaning, bathing, laundry, etc. Luckily though I played off the misspoken phrase with because there was always a baby in the cradle in the center of the room because... there always was a baby in the cradle. I'm pretty sure the kids didn't get it but you can never be too safe. The teachers got it. I explained to them why I misspoke and what I did to correct my mishap. Now to get technical if there was always a baby in the cradle, that would mean that THAT room was one of the BUSIER rooms in the house if you get my meaning... LOL

It was funny or at least I thought that it was funny after I thought about it. And so did the other Historical Interpreters when we talked about how we each thought that the tour went and what good/bad/interesting happened.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Noble and Nobility

Yesterday was an interesting day. Nothing major really happened. Spend a couple of hours roaming around the Internet. A patron had come in and after looking at the mosaic of the Houston coat of arms on the ground came up to us. He said that he had read somewhere that when there is a knight's helmet with the faceplate portrayed shown in gold. It means that the person, mainly the male, who was granted the coats of arms was not only knighted by royalty but also considered part of royalty.

Not being completely convinced by what the man said did some searching and found nothing concrete. But it would be an interesting thought.

The coat of arms story: The Houston Family chest was given to Hugh of Padivan (or Padavan) back in the 1100s in Scotland. There was a war raging in Scotland and King Malcome was pretty much in the end all win all battle of the war and he wasn't on the winning side. Hugh came to the battle with reinforcements just in time to change the tides of the battle and win. Ultimately saving the King's life.

In return for his heroic dead. Hugh was knighted to Sir Hugh of Padivan and given a deed to some land and had a castle built. Which became know as Hughstown for Hugh's Town. And then as time passed the spelling changed to Houston.

The coat of arms is flanked with two grey hounds on either side of the shield signifying the speed that Hugh reached the battles, from the phrase the fastest dogs to the fight win. The grey hounds also symbolize fidelity and loyalty to those they serve. There is a helmet to signify he was knighted placed above the shield. Above the helmet is a winged hourglass with a few sands left in them and a banner that says "In Time", the Latin translation of in tempera. Which signifies how Sir Hugh arrived just in time to win the battle. On the shield there are 3 black birds along with a checked grey and blue pattern in the shape of an upside down V. We at the museum like to think that it is more than coincidence that Sam Houston was nicknamed 'The Raven' by his Cherokee brethren.

I am pretty sure that I have all of the facts right on that. The book that has that information is at the other building and I will look at it tomorrow to double check. I'll take a picture of the coat of arms and upload it. Along with a picture of the Houston family Castle as it stands today. So that is where the Nobility came in.

Today since it was cool and not blazing hot outside I decided to work on the grotto and creek. I spent about 2 hours cleaning trash and glass out of the creek and making sure that the grotto was flowing properly. You wouldn't believe how much glass I picked out of the creek. Halfway through I started to think that I should try to recycle it instead.

Moving on the to Nobel part of the blog. While I was picking up trash an elderly woman came up to me and said "I don't know if you are volunteering or getting paid to do this but what you are doing is a really Noble thing. I think it is great what you are doing and I hate how people don't take care of the beauty that nature has provided for us." It got me beaming inside.

I technically do get paid to pick up the trash. But it wasn't necessarily in the job description. Yes, the job description said other duties as applied. But it wasn't intended for me to do it. You see after it rains a bunch stuff gets washed into the sewer pipes. Those sewer pipes then travel along the city until it reaches a plant or water center or whatever Huntsville has. A part of one pipe flows into the creek that runs through the park. And after it rains there is trash all up and down the creek. So instead of goofing off on the computer or sitting around twiddling my thumbs I go down there in my rubber boots with grocery bags and pick up the trash. Therefore yes I am getting paid to pick up trash but it is because of the time that I do it in and that is how I choose to spend my time.

I don't mind doing it. It gets me out of the office and on days like today out in the sun. It gets a little bit of physical labor out of me as well. And I like the finished project that I don't mind showing off in tours and don't have to worry about all of the trash taking away from the natural beauty of the creek.

Side note: While I was typing this a boy with his mother came in to the Rotunda. He was doing a school project on Sam Houston and was going taking pictures and reading things, asking questions and really getting involved. So I went around with him and told him some of the stories and things that I thought he should look at. It was great to see him get as excited about what I was telling as I was. All hope for Society is not lost just yet!

Monday, March 16, 2009

The Percks of Working on a Rainy Day

Okay so you might think that working on a rainy cold day might be a good idea because no one would show up. Well there are some crazies out there who did decide to show up. Even though it has been raining cats and dogs for the past couple of days they are still out in it. Then they track in all the wetness through their umbrellas and and shoes and makes squekky noises on the floor.

But seriously why are you out in it?!

Not only that but it is FREEZING in the Rotunda. It's like what ever the weather is like outside its the same inside, kind of like there is no insalation to the place at all. I sure as heck didn't want to be there but was soooo counting on no one else either.

I had to have a could lunch because the microwave is crappy there and then when it became time to close up. There were still people walking around the grounds outside. It has been overcast or raining all day and people are out there even though it looks like the sky is going to open up any minute and start to rain and the sun isn't even out or anything that could be considered sunlight. It's like I have to close the museum people it is 4:30, I am reguired to close up you have to leave.

So I skip around the houses locking up ones that people aren't at.

As I'm typing this I am remembering that the geese were giving me hassle about opening up the houses. At first they were in the crop garden and I try to chase them out. Not really running but shooing them. Then they stop and I turn around to open the houses. And then they turn back around and start to follow me quacking at me. Seriously geese you are in my way. We let you be here, let me do my job! After I get the Woodland home unlocked they are in front of the Kitchen and yell at me for opening that up.

All I wanted to do was go home people and geese and you guys wouldn't let me do my job so I could! LOL It wasn't that bad just couldn't feel my fingers by the end of the day.